Biofuels production for use as liquid motor fuels or for blending with conventional gasoline or diesel motor fuels is increasing worldwide. Such biofuels include, for example, ethanol and n-butanol. One of the major drivers for biofuels is their derivation from renewable resources by fermentation and bioprocess technology. Conventionally, biofuels are made from readily fermentable carbohydrates such as sugars and starches. For example, the two primary agricultural crops that are used for conventional bioethanol production are sugarcane (Brazil and other tropical countries) and corn or maize (U.S. and other temperate countries). The availability of agricultural feedstocks that provide readily fermentable carbohydrates is limited because of competition with food and feed production, arable land usage, water availability, and other factors. Consequently, lignocellulosic feedstocks such as forest residues, trees from plantations, straws, grasses and other agricultural residues may become viable feedstocks for biofuel production. However, the very heterogeneous nature of lignocellulosic materials that enables them to provide the mechanical support structure of the plants and trees makes them inherently recalcitrant to bioconversion.
One available technology path to convert lignocellulose biomass to ethanol is to convert lignocellulosic biomass to syngas (also known as synthesis gas, primarily a mix of CO, H2 and CO2 with other components such as CH4, N2, NH3, H2S and other trace gases) in a gasifier and then ferment this gas with anaerobic microorganisms to produce biofuels such as ethanol, n-butanol or chemicals such as acetic acid, butyric acid and the like. This technology path can convert all of the components to syngas with good efficiency (e.g., greater than 75%), and some strains of anaerobic microorganisms can convert syngas to ethanol, n-butanol or other chemicals with high (e.g., greater than 90% of theoretical) efficiency. Moreover, syngas can be made from many other carbonaceous feedstocks such as natural gas, reformed gas, peat, petroleum coke, coal, solid waste and land fill gas, making this a more universal technology path.
However, production of syngas from biomass results in the generation of ammonia, carbonyl sulfide (COS) and hydrogen cyanide (HCN) as contaminants that are detrimental to both chemical and biological conversion of the syngas to useful chemicals. These contaminants must be removed from syngas and then managed or destroyed in an environmentally acceptable manner, generally at significant expense.
Conventional methods for removal of ammonia, COS and HCN from syngas prior to its use generally involves scrubbing with aqueous solutions to remove these compounds from the syngas with subsequent discharge of the scrubbing solutions to wastewater treatment or via alternate disposal methods.
Modern processes for ammonia removal include the water wash process in which the gas is scrubbed by water, which dissolves the ammonia. The resulting scrubbing solution is pumped to an ammonia still where steam is used to strip out the ammonia. The ammonia vapors from the still can be processed to form ammonium sulfate, condensed to form a strong ammonia solution, incinerated or catalytically converted to nitrogen and hydrogen which are then recycled back into the gasifier.
Another process for ammonia removal from coke oven gas is the PHOSAM process developed by US Steel. This process absorbs the ammonia from the gas stream using a solution of monoammonium phosphate. The process produces saleable anhydrous ammonia, but operates at temperatures on the order of 50 degrees Celsius and pressures up to 190 psig (˜13 atmospheres of pressure gauge) in the stripper column. There is a need for a more robust and cost effective method for the treatment of syngas, particularly when used for biological transformation to useful liquid products such as ethanol, acetic acid or butanol.
Well known and used biological treatment processes, used in concert with water based scrubbers can meet the objectives of high removal of ammonia, COS and HCN from syngas. Biological treatment processes can operate at atmospheric pressure and low temperatures without the excessive cost of expensive chemicals and operate without the generation of hazardous and/or toxic wastes. Biological treatment processing of ammonium, COS, and HCN absorbed into water from gas streams has been done before. Ammonia is, in general, removed using a slightly acidic or neutral pH scrubbing solution and this spent solution is sent to an aerobic wastewater treatment system where the ammonia is oxidized to nitrate and the nitrate subsequently reduced to nitrogen gas via denitrification, generally using an added organic electron donor such as methanol.